Six days before he shot and killed 18 people at two Lewiston businesses, Robert Card told employees at a bakery outlet in Hudson, New Hampshire: “Maybe you will be the ones I snap on.”
That revelation was reported to police the day after the shootings and revealed in a report obtained Friday by the Press Herald.
Tad Dionne, Hudson’s police chief, previously acknowledged that Card had an “altercation” with employees at a Country Kitchen Bakery Outlet days before the shooting, but did not share details. The incident wasn’t reported until after employees saw images of Card on the news. At that point, the shootings were over and a massive manhunt for Card was under way.
“We immediately documented what they told us and forwarded it to Maine State Police to assist them in any way,” Dionne said.
Card had recently begun driving a delivery truck for a third-party company that has not yet been identified. The delivery included products from LePage Bakeries in Lewiston, although a company spokesperson said Card was not and had never been employed there.
Hudson is a town in southern New Hampshire near the Massachusetts border, about 150 miles from Card’s house in Bowdoin.
According to the police report, an unnamed employee told a Hudson police officer that he thought Card had been delivering to the bakery outlet for the last six months.
The employee said that during one interaction earlier this year, Card told the employee, “I’m not gay or a pedophile, but just show me where the bread goes.”
That would have been in the spring. Family members first started contacting police about Card’s erratic behavior in May but have said it started in January or February. He later spent two weeks in a New York psychiatric hospital after fellow members of an Army Reserve unit became concerned about him, and also punched another reservist on Sept. 14 coming back from a casino.
During the Oct. 19 encounter at the bakery outlet, Card accused employees there of talking about him. One employee told police that it seemed like Card was hearing voices. At one point, the employee said Card got in his face but never made a direct threat. It was during that encounter he made the comment about snapping on someone.
The employee also told police he saw Card on Oct. 24 shortly before midnight. There was no information in the police report about that.
Less than 20 hours later, Card walked into Just-in-Time Recreation with an assault rifle and started shooting.
Staff writer Rachel Ohm contributed to this story
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